Putin knew Snowden was bound for Russia

Roland Oliphant

Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted he was told of Edward Snowden's intention to seek refuge in Russia while the US National Security Agency contractor was still in Hong Kong.

Mr Putin, a former KGB officer, said he sympathised with America's anger at the whistleblower but denied that Mr Snowden had supplied any secrets to the Russians.

''That was top secret information and if one of our guys had caused similar damage to us, of course I'd strive to make sure he was held accountable to the full weight of Russian law,'' he said.

''The problem isn't that we're defending Mr Snowden. We're not. The problem is that we don't have an extradition treaty with the US. We've proposed one many times, and only ever received a refusal,'' he told Russia's Channel 1 and Associated Press.

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Mr Putin said he had never been in direct contact with Mr Snowden, but that he was informed as soon as the NSA man, who was granted asylum in Russia last month, contacted the country's diplomats in Hong Kong.

''I said: 'If he wants to stay with us, fine, but he has to stop his activities damaging Russian-American relations. We're not an NGO, we have state interests.'

''He said: 'No, I'm a fighter for human rights, and I ask you to fight alongside me.' So I said: 'No, we won't fight with you, you can fight alone.' He just left.''

Mr Putin said the next he heard of Mr Snowden was two hours before he landed in Moscow. He was trapped at the airport after US diplomats applied pressure to European and other countries to block his onward flights.